Gulliver's travels: Part 1

HSBC’s chairman of Europe, the Middle East and global businesses explains how the bank’s historical roots in the Far East and lessons learnt during the Asian financial crisis have helped it successfully navigate the ongoing global financial turmoil.

Stuart Gulliver is the man who led one of the swiftest and most sustained profit increases in HSBC's 145-year history. And it is a feat he performed in Asia, against the backdrop of a debilitating regional meltdown, while head of treasury and capital markets from 1994 to 2002.

That experience has served the bank well ever since. If any bank can claim to have sailed through the global financial crisis relatively intact, it is HSBC...